John Desmarais ’85 and James Motherway ’83 have joined Manhattan College’s board of trustees, after an election by the current members of the board.

Desmarais is the founding partner of Desmarais LLP, a New York intellectual property law firm focused on litigation of complex, technology-driven disputes. Desmarais is also the founder member of Round Rock Research, LLC and SoundView Innovations, LLC, patent-holding companies he formed to license the patented technology they own.

Desmarais has more than 25 years of experience in patent law and intellectual property litigation. He has been recognized for several significant trademark and patent dispute wins, including one of the largest jury verdicts of all time, a $1.53 billion award for Alcatel-Lucent vs. Microsoft in 2007. Prior to launching Desmarais LLP in 2010, Desmarais spent 13 years as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he served on the management committee. Before that, he served as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where for three years he tried criminal jury trials for the federal government. He also practiced in the area of intellectual property litigation and counseling for several years at Fish & Neave.

Desmarais earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College, where he graduated magna cum laude and earned the chemical engineering medal. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1988.

Motherway is a managing director and Global Head of Audit at BlackRock, Inc., a global investment management firm based in New York City. Founded in 1988 initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with more than $4.5 trillion in assets under management.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, he spent six years with Bank of America as senior vice president and general auditor, and two years with Raymond James as senior vice president for high yield sales. From 1992-2003, Motherway spent 11 years with Lehman Brothers as senior vice president for high yield sales. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1983.

Motherway graduated magna cum laude from Manhattan College with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He went on to earn an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School in 1990. A certified public accountant, he currently serves on the Manhattan College School of Business advisory board and is a business mentor for students.